Maya export/import

[chikega]

You can't really start an animation in Maya and then finish it messiah or vice versa - well, atleast not on the same object. Ideally, you would rig and animate in messiah and then render in the host app. Only the vertex deformation is carried over to the host program, whether it be LW, Maya, Max, or C4d. Take a look at the video entitled "Using messiah as a Plugin". Although LW is used in the video, the principles still apply to other host apps.

http://www.projectmessiah.com/x2/videos.htm

Now I have heard of some studios mixing and matching between apps with messiah as go-in-between. They would rig and animate characters in messiah. Animate other objects in Maya while taking advantage of it's superb soft/rigid body dynamics. And then render everything in LW.

[madDave]

Okay, I must be misunderstanding the process. I thought I was able to take my model in to Messiah to be animated, such as a walk cycle, jump, whatever, bring it back in to Maya and add whatever effects and dynamics and render it out. I know I wont be bringing the rig back in from Messiah, but I will be bringing back in the animation, right?

If this isn't right my only other alternative is pointOven then, right?

[chikega]

That's correct. I misunderstood you're first question ... since, some are under the impression that the rigging made in messiah can be brought into Maya for some additional tweaking. Dynamics can be added, of course, in Maya. :)

[madDave]

I did go look at the video, and it's actually better then what I was thinking. I only thought I could take my object from Maya to Messiah and back again- which was my question as to if I could shut it all down without losong anything- instead I'm going to take my character out as an obj and then do all that I want to do in Messiah and then bring it back in to Maya through the plugin and add all my periphials for rendering. Very cool! Thanks.

[the_podman]

Sorry to "revive" an old thread guys, but I have a little dillema.

I'm currently evaluating motionbuilder for my realtime animation needs. Then, I discover Messiah which is much cheaper and seems to do more.

In motionbuilder, you build the animation on a "control rigg", then the motion gets "baked" as regular FK animation onto the skeleton and that is what you import back into Maya.

How does this work in Messiah? If I do my animation in messiah, does that mean in order to render out my final scene in Maya I have to still have messiah running? Or, better yet(for my purposes), can I still export the motion in Maya as regular FK rotations on a simple skeleton?
I guess what it all boils down to is:
Does my skeleton exist in Maya alone after I create motions in Messiah? Is that what "Point Oven" plugin for messiah is for?

The reason why I need to know is because I want to use the app to create "game cycles" and typical "game motions" for ingame or cinematic use in a realtime game engine. I have an exporter for Maya which I am using that exports all the joint rotations/translations as .psa .psk files for use in UnrealEd.

Would be nice if messiah had an .fbx like plugin where I can simply take the mesh and skeleton info(with motions) back and forth.

Thanks for your time, guys,.
-pod

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